


Glitched out of Existence

by Amari



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 20:19:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1954920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amari/pseuds/Amari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fan has sent the Achievement Office some personal Shimejis-- or desktop buddies. Something seems strange about Michael's though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glitched out of Existence

**Author's Note:**

> This is a really old fic that I'm finally posting here.

“Alright guys, I have a little something a fan sent us.” Geoff stated as he walked into the small green room that was the AH office. Ray, Michael, Ryan, and Jack turned to look at what the boss man had in his hands. It was a small blue flash drive. “I’ve already looked through it, and it holds something called Shimejis, and there’s one for each of us.”

Michael furrowed his eyebrows, “What the fuck are Shimejis?”

Geoff waved his hand around, “I don’t really fucking know, from the quick google search, they are pretty much desktop buddies that walk around your screen and just look cute and shit. I think we can maybe have them on for a while, just to humor the person that took the time that made them, yanno?”

Each person took their turn taking the file with their name on it and putting it on their computer. Jack’s shimeji was of his own little character from Trials Evolution. It was a small red guy with a red top hat, black hair and brown eyes. He climbed the sides of his computer by riding a blue bike. He’d also multiply by crashing his bike and respawning. Jack certainly found it amusing.

Ryan’s shimeji was of his brown minecraft cow Edgar. He had the silliest expression on his face, eyes split apart, and a tongue hanging out of his mouth. He never moved much, and preferred saying in the center of the bottom of the screen. There was no special animation for him multiplying, another would just appear. Ryan would just name them Edgar with another number trailing it. Michael, whose desk was parked next to Ryan’s would look over and see fifteen or more Edgar’s running around his screen.

“Dude, how can your computer even handle that?” Michael asked curiously. “You really should just get rid of them you know?”

“Nooooooo!” Ryan whined as he hugged his monitor. “I could never get rid of my Edgars!”

“Uhhh… Guys…. Why the hell is my Shi-ma-whatever a little Joel?” Ray asked confused as dicks. The crew looked at his computer and sure enough, it was a little tiny Joel in the corner of his computer. His cheeks were pink and it had his trademark spiky black hair and oversized hoodie.  It would stick its tongue out whenever it was climbing the walls, like it was concentrating really hard on not falling. Whenever it jumped from the ceiling, a little word bubble would pop up next to him with the word “Gooold!” before bouncing off the bottom of the screen. It would also sometimes fall asleep, with a cute little sleep bubble coming out of his nose.

“Fuck it, it’s really cute, I’m keeping it.” Ray finally stated.

Geoff’s was of his wife, Griffon. Honestly, the details in this small chibi looking thing were amazing. It had her tats well defined, and her nose ring was visible as well. It also had her work goggles on the top of her head, and the goggles would be on her face whenever she was climbing the side of the screens. It would multiply by carving another Griffon out of wood before breaking out of the wood and walking around.  It was beautiful; it really was, just like his wife.

When it came for Michael to open his desktop friend, he was pretty much thinking it was going to be Banjo or Mogar or some shit like that.  “What… the fuck?” Michael ended up muttering when he saw his.

He had no idea who it was. It was of a little tan guy with rather dark brown hair that seemed pretty messy. He had bright green eyes, and a little bit of facial hair. He wore a green scarf that bore a Minecraft Creeper’s face on it, and a Red shirt that said “Touch my awesome button” in white with a lightning bolt arrow leading down to his tiny crotch area. 

Michael turned to look at Geoff, “Hey, you sure this is mine, because I have no idea who this fucker is.”

Geoff just shrugged, “Yeah, that’s what the flash drive said.” 

Michael just stared at his little friend. Why would they have made something related to the other guys, but gave something original to Michael? It didn’t make sense.

He continued to watch as the little guy interacted on the screen. He moved around much more than the other’s did, he mimicked Joel’s face when climbing but his expression was more stressed than Joel’s.  Whenever he made it to the top of the screen he’d have a speech bubble that said “This is top!”

Top? Does it mean that he’s _at_ the top? What a strange grammatical error.

Whenever he jumped from the ceiling or the sides he’d have a bubble that said “MARRK NUUUTTT.” Who the fuck is Mark Nut?

Michael honestly wasn’t happy with that guy that he got. He knew that he really shouldn’t complain because a fan took their time to make these, but he honestly couldn’t really enjoy it. He’d have been much happier with Banjo than this strange person-thing. He groaned a bit and ran a hand through his curly hair. He kept it on his screen though, despite not liking it.

Closer to the end of the day, Michael’s screen suddenly blinked and warped for a fraction of a second, before his Shimeji kicked the window he was working on off the screen. “What the fuck was that for, you little shit?” Michael grumbled at the program. He really didn’t think twice about the blinking of the screen, thinking it was just the monitor having a fit. The brown haired little guy sat on the ground in the corner and didn’t move at all after that.

When it was time to go, Michael closed the shimeji and left a longer video to render open for the night. He’d get back to it the next day.

Or so he thought.

\---

It was early enough that only Ray and Michael were there that morning.

“What the fuck!?” Michael roared at his computer. He tried going through all his files to find the projects he’d spent the entire day before editing and couldn’t find a single one.  “Where the fuck are the files?!?”

It seemed to get worse the more he searched. It seemed that something was eating his files, and eventually, even the editing program disappeared from his computer. He was practically spitting out profanities his face turning red as he slammed his fists on the table. Ray tried calming him down, but it was to no avail as he continued seething at his computer. “Maybe you have a virus, you should maybe turn of the computer, Michael…”  
“Yeah, you are right, I probably do.” Michael agreed.

Michael was reaching for the off button when all of a sudden, that green-eyed little prick popped out on his screen, with its stupid little smile on its face.

As far as anyone was aware, they weren’t supposed to pop up on their own, what the heck was going on?  “What do you WANT you little shit? Can’t you see I’m not having a good day?” Michael screamed. He tried closing it multiple times, but it wouldn’t go away. The computer refused to shut off as well with the shimeji running.

“Alright, that’s it, I’m unplugging it, I’m done with this shit.” Michael claimed as he bent down underneath the table top.

As he bent down, the screen flickered again, and a message window popped up. It was one of those strange old looking system windows with the black background and white pixely text. 

_I wOULn’T DO Th@t if I werE yOu._

Ray saw the message in time to get a “Michael wait—“ out just before Michael touched the plug. Michael got a pretty harsh shock from it, he felt the pain go from his fingertips straight up his arm. Michael jerked up and just ended up smashing his head against the bottom of the table. “OW MOTHERFUCKER!” He shouted, rolling on the floor.

“ToLd yoU.” The screen prompted before flickering again.  This time is flickered a few times, with chunks of other windows and programs filling the screen. The text window remaining up front.

“Uh… Michael, you should probably get up here. Look at this.” Ray stammered, backing from the computer and bumping into Geoff’s desk.

Michael groaned, still rubbing his head and looked up.

“What. The. Fuck.” Michael yelled, backing up from the computer as well.

Now the computer had his Shimeji on it, but it wasn’t the same little fella that was there before.  Now instead of the tiny cute thing it was, it was huge. It’s upper half taking up the screen, its body was white, and with lines of circuitry appearing like tattoos. Half its body was pixelating into the background that was now going haywire. It’s eyes were wide and glowing red, as if the computer were made of insanity.

“diD yOu mis$ Me?!?” The computer prompted.

“WHAT THE FUCK?” The boys shouted in unison. Their brains were telling them to run and get the hell out of there, but their bodies weren’t agreeing. They were paralyzed, glued to the nightmare that was in front of them. 

Ray broke away for a second to look at Michael, “What the hell does that even mean?”

“Shit! I dunno, I have no idea what it’s talking about, I’ve never even seen it before! What the hell even is it?” Michael yelled back.

“AwW. Michael, yOur Word$ hUrT mE.” The screen typed out in front of them. “I wAs yoUr Bessst FrIEnD. REMeMBer?!?”  The Shimeji tried looking hurt, but the warped smile it wore ruined its attempt.

Nope, the redhead hadn’t a goddamn clue what the… the virus was even talking about.  Instead, Michael just stared at the screen, hoped it would continue explaining.

By the way, how the hell could it even hear what they were saying?   
None of this made any goddamn sense.

“mAybEE the nAMe G@vin FreE will RiNg a belL?” The virus tried.

Gavin? Gavin? Who the fuck was Gavin? Michael tried to sort through his panicked brain to try and grab onto that name.

Gavin Free….

Actually…. It did ring a bell. There was something familiar about the name but what? Just what was it that was familiar about it? Michael grabbed as his head as he tried to focus.

“This is fucking scary.” Ray said as he started to tremble.

“Gavin…” Michael whispered.

“I waS rEAl Once. I wAS yoUr BesT fRienD. I w@s The onE THAt saT in that desK neXT tO yoUr$.” The virus tried explaining. “We WresTleD likE BrothERs, BetTED on stupiD thiNgs. We Laughed together, WE crIEd toGetHer. We WerE a TeAm!”

Michael let the words sink in. He knew that he wasn’t lying, he felt it deep in his soul that the virus wasn’t lying. Yet his brain had no real trace of this Gavin Free. The wrestling? The bets? It sounds possible, but there was no memory to be had that connected to that name.

Team. That word sounded familiar. It reminded him of Minecraft, but he wasn’t sure why.

And then it happened. There was a break in his memory. Michael was a bear, and he—the virus, was with a Creeper, but it was a skin and not the actually creature.  He remembered laughing along with it, and remembered pushing a rather skinny man next to him on occasion when the Creeper threw lava everywhere.

“Team… Nice…. Dynamite.” Michael found himself saying out loud.   
“X-Ray… and Vav…” Ray ended up saying soon after. Michael’s head shot up to look at the man next to him. There was a moment he forgot that the Puerto Rican was next to him.

The virus glitched, half his arm disappeared for a second, shifting into 1s and 0s before forming again.

“So, Do yoU RemEMber me Now?” Gavin asked. There was something behind his eye that tried to sparkle under the murderous glow. Like a spark of hope that maybe someone remembered him.

Honestly, neither of them did, but they could feel it. They remembered bits and pieces, but not the actual person.  There was no name attached to the dialogue in the heads, no face attached to the fragments that made up their memories.

Michael shook his head, “I’m… I’m sorry, Gavin…”  Why the hell was he apologizing to a virus that was ruining his work and possibly going to kill him?  “I feel like… I know you, but I don’t remember you…”

The rogue shimeji let out a heart breaking and ear busting shriek at Michael’s admittal.  Both men grabbed their ears and grunted, hoping they wouldn’t go deaf.

The sound continued as Ray ended up crumpling next to Michael. They heard cracking all of sudden and they looked at the windows. They were cracking from the sound, and a few seconds later, they blew. Shards of glass flew everywhere, sparkling in the Austin sun. Michael and Ray huddled together, trying to keep from getting hurt by covering what they could with their arms and legs.

Ray let out a hiss as his as he felt a few shards graze against his hands and arms.

Eventually the shrieking stopped, and they boys dared to peek out from behind their arms to look at Michael’s computer.

The creature was glitching horribly now. Bits and pieces warped every second. It was like it was having troubles staying together now that it was distressed as it was.

Even the text box was harder to read, for it was glitching out too. “HoW! CoulD yOU beTray me? HoW coOULD yoU FORget mE?”

Then its mouth ripped apart, it rapidly became demented. The form waved and bent, the entire background went black and the red glowing eyes became dark spheres.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO MEEEEE!?” The monster screamed. It began to claw at the screen, trying to find its way out of its container.

Ray started whimpering next to Michael. Honestly, Michael had never expected to see the man cry in his lifetime, but fear does funny things to people. Ray started muttering “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Over and over again. He was grabbing his head, trying to protect himself in case the monster actually somehow broke through.

Michael had enough of this. He put on his tough face and glared at the monster. He stood up slowly, trying to look like he wasn’t scared shitless like he was. “THAT’S ENOUGH, GAVIN!” He yelled at the monster. 

The monster shut up, surprised at the sudden challenge the man had given him.  “What the hell do you think you are doing? What are you trying to accomplish? I’m sorry I don’t fucking remember who you are, but what the fuck is scaring us shitless going to do?” Michael snarled, and took a step toward the computer.

“Calm your digital ass down, and fucking explain things, god dammit!” and the monster that was Gavin stayed silent for a few moments.

Eventually, the creature had reformed into the white Shimeji he had been, the background nearly restored except for Gavin taking up most of the screen.   


The text box made a return. “I… aM soRRy.”

Michael took a moment to shake Ray out of his state of panic and told him to take care of his cuts. Ray nodded and did as he was told.

Michael took a seat in his chair in front of his computer. He wasn’t even sure what the fuck he was doing, and pretty certain he was asking to die by doing this, but he needed to know what this computer program was going on about.

Michael scratched at his head for a moment before speaking, “Alright, tell me, who you are, and your story, and who knows, I might just remember you, and we might be able to help you out.”

The computer Gavin nodded, and waited for Ray to return before starting his story.

The corrupted program began by telling them that he was from England, and how he had a youtube channel called “The slo-mo guys.” He told them how he eventually made his way to the Achievement Hunter office, and lived with Geoff, Griffon and Millie. He told the two about how he got along with everyone, but got picked on all the time from saying whatever was on his mind. He told them about the stupid things that they had all done together, and how the three of them were Team Lads.  It was his desk that was next to Michael’s not Ryan’s.

 As he recounted his story, Michael expected him to lose it again and become a monster, but he didn’t. Instead he slowly reverted back into the little chibi thing he had been before. The shirt came back, the creeper scarf came back, and the color came back into his skin.

“I… don’t know why… you don’t remember me, or why I suddenly disappeared.” The little guy muttered. “I just… remember all of a sudden being swallowed by my computer and ending up… on this side.”

Michael shook his head. He still didn’t remember Gavin Free, but he could feel the friendship and the bond that he had with this person. The memories were gone, but the feelings remained. He felt longing for this computer program. It was frustrating, because he was missing someone that he couldn’t remember. He wanted his friend back, but had no idea who that friend even was.

“I’m… sorry Gavin. I don’t know how your existence… could be written out of our lives, and rewritten as computer code. It doesn’t make any sense.” Michael apologized.

“The worst part is… I think I’m trapped here… I don’t know if there’s any way for me to get out.” He shuffled awkwardly. “If I didn’t break out, when I was in that crazy monster state, I don’t think I can ever get out.”

Neither Ray nor Michael had any idea how to help their mysterious forgotten friend. The little shimeji shuffled for a bit, also unsure of what to do.

“Uhm… how about this… Can I just stay here?” Gavin suggested. “I can be your friend from your computer, I mean, it won’t be the same… but I can try. I swear I won’t delete any of your files this time. I was just upset and confused….”

Michael wasn’t sure, it didn’t sound very safe, “Can you control it for sure though? Honestly, it looks like you are infected with a virus, and I don’t want to try and have it quarantined, it might kill you for good.”  Ray nodded in agreement.

Gavin hesitated, “I—but—Don’t worry. I’ll get rid of the virus. I’ll get rid of the virus, and I’ll come back, trust me. I’ll just need to go away for a bit.”

Michael’s heart sunk at Gavin’s statement. He didn’t like the feeling it gave him. It was unsettling. He felt like he was going to lose this friend of his a second time “Wait, no!” He found himself shouting at the computer screen.

The program just gave him a small smile. “I swear I’m going to come back, and… if I don’t, just… don’t forget the me you got to know now. Remember the story I told you, and not the crazy me that you saw today.”

“Goodbye Michael. Good bye Ray.” Gavin said before opening a hole in the background and slipping through it.

“GAVIN NO!” Michael panicked. As soon as he left, he was flooded with the memories of Gavin Free. All the goofy smiles, all the laughs, all the fun that they had together. It all came back to him.

He knew… He knew he wasn’t going to see Gavin again.

\--

“Michael….. Michael!”

Michael’s eyes opened sluggishly. “Hunh?” He barely managed to mutter.

“Come on, Michael, wake up you idiot.” It was Ray, and he was nudging awake. “How did you manage to fall asleep in the office? Were you here all night?”

All night? What?

Michael sat straight up, waking his computer up. “Ray, did Gavin come back?”

Ray raised an eyebrow at his coworker, “Who’s Gavin?”

“Don’t play stupid with me, Gavin is our friend, right, you were here, and he’s in the computer, and you got hurt, and—“ He trailed off when he took a look at Ray’s arm.

There were no bandages.

“Michael… I think you just had a bad dream… there is no Gavin.”

Michael tried to say something else, but just went looking for the Shimeji in his computer. He opened him up and the brown haired little character plopped out. It didn’t move like he remembered. It was just moving pictures, as it was before.

“This…” Michael said feeling his heart deflate, “This was Gavin… he was alive… I swear…”

Ray patted his back. “Michael… these aren’t alive buddy. It was just a nightmare.”

Michael sunk in his chair; again running his hands through is hair again. He shook his head a few times before being forced to accept that it really had been just a dream. He still couldn’t ignore the feeling of emptiness that was in his chest though.

Later, when everyone was in the office, Michael asked Geoff a question. “Hey, Geoff, who sent those Shimeji’s  anyway?”

Geoff turned around, “Oh, it was some guy with the username of Gavinofree. Think he lives over in England or something.”


End file.
